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Cool Thing of the Day: Make Your Own Gift Wrap

by Alexa on December 14, 2009

12_14_09_GreenPresents

No matter what holidays you’re celebrating this year, from Hanukkah to Boxing Day, gifts are part of many traditions. You can put a little extra love into every gift when you make your own wrapping paper.

Buying wrapping paper at the store is both costly and wasteful. As an eco-friendly Social Girl, you can create your own gift wrapping. It’s a really fun project and whoever opens the gift will know that you care enough about them to put in the extra time.

Here are our tips for making your own gift wrap.

Use Pre-printed Materials

Papers that are already printed can easily be used as gift wrap. Outdated road maps, the comics page from the newspaper, and even magazine covers can all be turned into wrapping paper. You can personalize these papers as well. Color in the comics or highlight special place names or road trip routes on the map. Every small touch you add will make the wrap unique.

Make Your Own Designs

On the other hand, blank papers will give you an entire canvas to design. The sturdy brown paper of grocery bags makes a great base. In fact, you can use any stiff paper from shopping bags. Just remove the handles and cut the bags open along the crease. Be careful when you are cutting. You’ll want to do it so that you have the largest flat piece of paper possible. Next you can create patterns and designs on the paper using markers or other art supplies. My favorite method is to use pastel crayons.

Create A Collage

Another way to make great homemade wrapping paper is collage. You can use images cut from magazines and catalogs. In the following video, gift-wrap guru Arona Khan demonstrates how to use Christmas catalogs and newspaper to make custom gift wrap. We like to take it one step further—we custom design the collage for the gift recipient. If your cousin is all about the JoBros, add a picture of Kevin or Joe to the collage and maybe a clipping from their Rolling Stone article.

Making your own gift wrap is a great way to go green this holiday season!

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Tagged as: Cool Thing of the Day, Creativity, Gift Ideas, Green, holidays, Presents

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Social Girls Guide to a Green Christmas: December 17, 2009 at 1:05 pm

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

dlr94 December 14, 2009 at 3:46 pm: i’m totally doing this.
Michelle December 14, 2009 at 4:03 pm: I always make my own wrapping for gifts. It’s really fun to draw my own papers and really make each gift perfect for whoever I’m giving it to. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s green too!